Letters To The Editor

June 15, 2002

U.S. Policy Creates More Terrorists

The June 12 Englehart's View is all wrong. It misses the point completely. War critics are trying to find other ways to deal with terrorism, and showing them with a dirty bomb being shoved down their throat doesn't make sense.

It's George W. Bush's policies that are creating more terrorists as the war kills more mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends.

Emily S. Chasse

West Hartford

Senate Should Support Yucca

Sometime before July 25, the U.S. Senate is to take a vote of critical importance not only to New England, but also to our national security. Approval of the Yucca Mountain national repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste is now in the bands of our senators.

This vote comes after overwhelming passage by the House of Representatives (306-117), with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, casting the sole negative vote from our six representatives.

The importance of a single, isolated and secure national repository for our highly radioactive nuclear waste cannot be overstated. Currently, this waste is temporarily stored at 131 sites in 39 states. Sites include Connecticut Yankee in Haddam and Millstone 1, 2 and 3 in Waterford. This is no longer merely an environmental issue. Since Sept. 11, it is an issue at the very top of our national security concerns.

Of our 12 New England senators, our two Connecticut senators may be the least supportive of this bill's passage. Sen. Joe Lieberman's vote is of particular concern. Sen. Lieberman appears to have forgotten he represents Connecticut residents as he dashes from fund-raiser to fund-raiser in an almost frenzied search for dollars and support for his presidential aspirations.

Yucca Mountain is the most scrutinized piece of real estate on this planet. In 1987, after exhaustive scientific review, Congress and the president selected this site from among nine in six states.

Connecticut residents, through our utility bills, have contributed more than $500 million since 1983 toward the nearly $20 billion that is now in the Nuclear Waste Fund. Almost $7 billion of this fund has already been spent on the Yucca site.

If this Senate vote goes down, we will go back 20 years in our planning for a secure national repository. If approved, it's estimated that Yucca will require another eight to 10 years to be finally developed to the point where it will be ready to receive the first shipment. We need to finish what we started almost 20 years ago, with the positive vote of our Senate.

The most commonly voiced argument against Yucca Mountain is the danger of transporting these wastes across the country. Nonsense. In the past 30 years, 2,700 shipments of spent nuclear fuel have been made without a release of radioactivity.

Peter B. Webster

Essex

The writer is first selectman of Essex.

AIDS Isn't Confined To Certain Groups

I was stunned and saddened to read the two letters headlined ``Firing The Messenger'' [June 10]. The writers went to lengths to describe how Nancy Ahern was merely telling the truth when she commented how a majority of the AIDS cases came from minorities and homosexuals. I admit that there was truth to what she said. What I find dreadfully appalling is that there are still people in this country who appear to see such a horrible epidemic as AIDS as confined to mostly minorities and homosexuals. This myopic view of the disease serves as a sign of ignorance to the magnitude of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

It was inferred from Ronald T. Voog's comments that homosexuals and minorities were the ``reservoir of the virus and its primary means of transmission.'' Mr. Voog ignores the extremely high instance of drug use that leads to AIDS, as well as transmission of the disease through heterosexual sex.

The issue at hand is that Ms. Ahern was missing the point on the AIDS virus. This horrible plague is one that has broadly attacked all segments of society, from Ryan White to Arthur Ashe to the millions of other silent victims who suffer in anonymity. To believe, as the letters said, that she was fired for political incorrectness, is grossly inaccurate. It is evident that she was fired for totally ignoring the aim of the assault on AIDS. That attack is focused directly on the disease that decimates humans from all walks of life, regardless of sexual orientation or race.

Mathew S. Galligan

Manchester

Accreditation Ensures High Standards

In ``Expensive Duplication Of Efforts'' [letter, June 1], Connecticut Veterans' Affairs Commissioner Eugene A. Migliaro Jr. wrote that accreditation of the Rocky Hill Veterans Home and Hospital by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is a waste of taxpayer funds and isn't needed because the scope of the facility has changed from acute care to chronic care.

I'm the service officer for the Disabled American Veterans, Unknown Soldier Chapter 12, Greater Hartford. I represent 1,297 disabled veterans. Some of these veterans are residents or patients of the Rocky Hill facility.